Lecture under the Research Seminars Series, Maastricht Centre for European Law

Freedom of pricing in the light of EU internal market law: single prices for the single market?

Maastricht University, Faculty of Law, 10 December 2019

Boardroom, 14.00-15.30

About the topic:

The lecture will outline some of the ambiguities arising from the endeavours of EU legislators to tackle the problem of direct and indirect price discrimination based on nationality or residence of the customer under EU free movement law. It will be submitted that prohibiting direct and indirect geographical price discrimination on the sale of goods and services with an unclear system of derogations potentially covers a variety of established pricing practices (including uniform prices and de minimis price differences). Consequently, Article 20(2) of the Services Directive should be repealed and a cautious approach towards interpreting and applying Article 4 of the new Geo-Blocking Regulation will be suggested in order to avoid disproportional restrictions of parties’ contractual freedom, especially in respect of traders with insignificant market power.

Power point presentation: Freedom of pricing Maastricht 2019